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Music Festival Branding Ambassadors.

Andy Robertson

The brand image of a music festival can support its perception by the wider world but it can be a fine balance between good and bad. Perception can influence numerous factors that may ultimately impact on the future financial success of a festival entity. What are some of the basics that organisers should get to grips with to push and protect their brand.


It only takes an adverse incident at a music festival for it go viral with the result that the event’s brand is damaged and, in some cases, can lead to a complete collapse of the festival entity. There are some fundamental essential steps that organisers can take to promote and protect their brand and they're not that complicated.

The Festival Team. 
Whether it’s the core full time team or the hundreds of volunteers recruited each year all of them need to embrace the brand and is a key component of their ongoing training. Understanding what the music festival represents along with its ethics is essential and the senior management team need to focus on this for their training programmes. Every individual working for, or contracted to, the festival entity is an ambassador for the festival and if there is any evidence of negativity this needs to be tackled as a priority.

Customer Service. 
A fully trained and efficient customer service function is the customer facing element of the festival entity and is often the first contact people have with the organisation. From simple questions about their tickets to supporting festival-goers on-site customer service staff need to come across as helpful and friendly. More importantly, the customer service function should extend to everyone working for the festival no matter what their assigned role is and should include contractors too. The phrase ‘’it’s not my job’’ should never be used by anyone, ever. 

Social Media and News Monitoring. 
Festival-goers who experience anything adverse can quickly post something on social media and these posts can quickly be picked up by journalists. It is vital that any media coverage is identified quickly so that an appropriate response can be issued. As much as it is tempting to blame someone else for something the festival organisers should always take responsibility where possible.

Planning.
The planning process for a music festival should include comprehensive ongoing training that aims to create teams of ambassadors for the event not matter what happens. Planning and preparation for every conceivable occurrence will help to ensure that everyone knows what their responsibilities are when something happens. A well-trained team and planned event will ensure that the festival organisers can respond rapidly to any adverse event and prevent it from getting out of control or even reaching social media. 

There is a lot of misunderstanding about branding with the misconception that it is just a logo or associated imagery. In reality the graphic design for a music festival plays a small part of the overall brand impact , the foundation for a successful brand is the people working for it along with excellent customer service. 

For festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Photo by Matheus Bertelli via Pexels

Andy Robertson
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